Also known as: filing statuses · tax filing status
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A category designating the type of income tax return a taxpayer must file. Federal law recognizes four such categories: single, head of household, married filing jointly, and married filing separately.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Felipe Figueroa files as single while his neighbor Felicia Fuentes files as head of household. When each faces the same statutory exaction for failing to maintain insurance, the IRS computes a higher amount for Felipe because the formula incorporates filing status along with household income. The difference arises solely from the category each taxpayer selects on the return.
Fernando Farrell, an individual taxpayer, and Fusion Power, a corporate entity, challenge a line-item veto statute. The definitional provision exempts differences based on filing status only for individuals, not for businesses, so Fernando's return category directly determines whether the challenged provision applies to him.
Federal law recognizes single, head of household, married filing jointly, and married filing separately as the four categories that determine the form and tax treatment of an individual's return.
When a monetary exaction is calculated by reference to income and filing status and collected with tax returns, courts treat the exaction as operating like a tax rather than a penalty.
Variation according to filing status is one of the operational features that shows an exaction functions as a tax because it ties the amount to the taxpayer's return characteristics rather than to a fixed regulatory fine.
…who do owe the payment, its amount is determined by such familiar factors as taxable income, number of dependents, and joint filing status. §§5000A(b)(3), (c)(2), (c)(4). The requirement to pay is found in the Internal Revenue Code and enforced by the IRS, which—as we previously explained— must assess and collect it “in the…